Oh, dear brother
by AceM
Summary: Diego meets another saber, who turns out to be his older brother, Agu! Of course the herd offers him to join them after he tells them that he has just lost his whole pack to the humans. Ellie thinks he's likeable. Diego is more than happy to have him back. Sid, Eddie, Crash and Peaches look up to him. Manny doesn't trust him. And maybe, just maybe, he has a point...
1. Prologue

**When I was lazing outside in the sunshine today, this idea came into my head. You know Manny's past, you know Ellie's past, you _kinda _know Sid's past, but you don't know much about Diego's past- the only thing you _do_ know is that he was in Soto's pack. So in this story, an old acquaintance  
of Diego's** **shows up: Agu, his older brother. He has lost his whole pack to the humans and is now on his own. The herd offers him to stay with them and everyone takes him into their heart real fast- except Manny. He doesn't trust the new saber in the herd, and he has a point...**

**(Oh, and I know that, if I will get comments, they will be about the Diego/Peaches thing: Diego is NOT! in love with Peaches, even if it _kinda _looks like that in this chapter; the real reason for his behaviour will be explained in later chapters!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ice Age (but I do own Agu). **

You could hear heavy breathing and loud snoring. You could smell a scent that could have easily seared your nose.  
You could see a sloth lazily snoozing on a rock which was still a little warm from the sun.

The grass rustled. The sloth didn't notice.  
A faint growling was heard. The sloth still didn't move.

But it lifted its head abruptly when the grass suddenly parted and a huge saber with tawny fur and pearl white fangs appeared, roaring as loud as it could and pinning the sloth down to the ground. This happened within four seconds.  
In the fifth, the sloth was very positive about its death and screamed for help, panicked. In the sixth, loud laughter was heard.

"And that's how you stalk up to a sloth," a familiar voice said. "Even though you don't actually have to _stalk up _on it because sloths are way too lazy to recognize you anyway."

"Is he okay, uncle Diego?", a high, clear voice asked.

"Hmm? Oh, sure. Hey, what's wrong with you, Sid? We've been looking for you for _hours!"_

Sid finally managed to get up. "And now that you've found me you just _had_ to do this! You nearly scared me to death! And why do you give Peaches hunting lessons anyway? She'll _never_ hunt!"

The tiger frowned. "I don't give her _hunting_ lessons, I give her _how- to- scare- a- sloth- to- death- _lessons. That's the only fun I can have around here, don't ruin this for me!"

Sid looked at Peaches, the little daughter of their mammoth- friend Manny.  
Now that she saw that her uncle was fine she started giggling. "That actually was kinda funny! You scream like a girl, uncle Sid!"

Peaches was five years old now, and Diego spent lots of time with her.  
Sid hadn't noticed at first, but then the saber had started to give his little niece "hunting lessons", which she would never need.

After a while he had also told her how to sneak, how to fight- and even how to roar.  
Sometimes he acted like she was his cub.

Manny often said that he didn't want Diego to make a saber-tooth tiger out of his daughter, but Ellie, his mate, didn't have much against it.

"Diego is very secretive and cold," she had simply said. "I guess teaching her how to roar, how to hunt and how to fight is just his way to show Peaches that he cares about her. He would never say that out loud, so he does things like that."

That was plausible, but in Manny's eyes still a huge waste of time.

"Cheer up!", Ellie had said with a soft voice. "At least Peaches will be able to defend herself when she's in danger."

Sid wasn't sure if Peaches really liked those "How- to- be- a- saber- tooth- tiger- lessons", but she had never complained yet.  
He wasn't exactly worried about her though- it was Diego he was concerned about.

His friend had been acting weird for the past few months, always talking about old traditions of a saber- pack, teaching Peaches saber- knowledge, leaving the herd for no reason and coming back a few days later... and being grumpy and aggressive _all the time._

Peaches seemed to be the only one who could make him laugh. Diego was obviously unhappy, depressed even, but he was way too proud to tell his herd the reason.

Ellie had tried to talk with him a few times, and she always received the same answer: "I'm fine. Just haven't slept very well last night."

"Sloth? Did you fall asleep again?" Diego's snarling voice brought Sid back to the present.

"Heey, you don't have to yell at me," Sid said, slightly hurt by his friend's hostile attitude .

"Well, I wouldn't have to if you weren't so slow-witted," Diego grunted.

"What's your problem?"

"_You're _my problem! Now get moving, _Lord Of The Flames, _it's getting cold and your skills are needed."

"Are you angry, uncle Diego?", Peaches asked and looked up at her uncle with innocent green eyes.  
Diego's expression softened. "No, of course not. Come on, Sid."

On their way back Sid watched his friend closely.  
He saw him lifting his head up and sniffing the fresh air. Then, suddenly, he stood still.

"Do you smell that, Peaches?"

"No, what?"

"Concentrate. Try again."

Peaches lifted her trunk, sniffing the air like her uncle did. "I really don't smell anything."

"Er, Diego, Peaches is a mammoth, her nose isn't as sensitive as-"

_"Shush!" _

"Stop talking like that to-"

"For pity's sake, be quiet, sloth!"

Sid started to take fright when he saw Diego's hackles rising- the sloth wasn't exactly the definition of the word _smart, _but he knew that this was definitely a bad sign.

Then, after a tense moment, Diego relaxed and his fur flattened.

"Wha...what's wrong?", Sid stuttered. "Was there anything?"

Diego hesitated and the sloth tried to read his eyes, but as always he couldn't figure out what the tiger was thinking- Diego was just too good at hiding his feelings, his thoughts and his worries.

Then he finally sighed, and it sounded a little disappointed, but his voice was as cold as ever when he answered: "No. Everything's okay. Let's go."

Sid and Peaches exchanged a worried look before they started to follow Diego.  
When they arrived at the camp, Crash and Eddie, two possums that were also Ellie's "brothers", ran into their direction.

"Finally!", Eddie said.

"I'm freezing to death!", Crash cut in.

"Ah, it's so great to be missed!" Sid stretched and performed diverse "heroic" contortions before grabbing two stones to make the fire.

"Did anything happen?", Ellie asked when she saw her daughter.  
Peaches eyes were still wide because of Diego's strange behaviour, his harsh words against Sid and especially this _smell _her uncle had talked about.

"Uncle Diego says he has smelt something," she finally said.

"So?" Manny looked at his saber friend. "What was it? Does Sid have flatulence again?"

"Ooh, please, no!", Crash cried. "If he does, we're all gonna die tonight!"

"No, no, I haven't smelt anything, really," Diego said. Now his voice sounded different... troubled.

"Diego... what is it?"

"Nothing to worry about."

"Why don't you tell me then?"

"Alright." Diego gave up. "I think I've smelt another saber. But it was just one, I swear! I don't think he's in a pack- if he was, I would have scented the other members, too."

"There's a _saber_?! There's _another saber _near my precious little Peaches and you decided not to tell me, just like that?!", Manny yelled outraged.

"Don't worry, Peaches is never alone. And one saber doesn't have a chance against two adult mammoths."

"But he does have a chance against another saber!", Manny scolded. "From now on your little trips through the forest and _hunting lessons _will stop, got it?"

Once again, Diego sighed. "Alright."

"But hey, Diego, if it really was just one saber, why did you look so worried then?", Sid asked.

"I don't know... the smell was kinda familiar."

"What do you mean?", Ellie asked. "Do you know that saber?"

Diego shrugged. "Maybe... but I hope I don't."

Sid knew what he meant. The only sabers Diego knew were members of his old pack- the pack that he had betrayed to become a part of their weird little herd. The pack whose leader he had killed to save a mammoth, a sloth and a human baby.

"Let's go to sleep," Manny said when he heard Peaches yawning, and after she had stopped protesting (_"But I'm not tired yet, dad!") _they all laid down- except the two possums who preferred hanging from a tree.

Sid tried to make himself comfortable on a rock and fell asleep almost immediately.

Diego stayed awake for the rest of the night and flinched at every sound.


	2. Reunion

**Thanks so much for your reviews :DD **

**Mad-Face Pro c.c: No, it's not- I don't have an account on DeviantArt^^**

Diego's eyes burnt- he just wanted to lay down, put his head on his paws and sleep.  
But he just couldn't. What if it wasn't just one saber like he had assumed? If it was a whole pack, they would attack while they were all sleeping.

He couldn't let that happen!  
Diego scented the air, even though he doubted that this saber would be near them now.

But then he felt his heart pounding vigorously in his chest, his hackles rose again and he started up to his paws.

_The saber!_

He was sure that he had smelt him, but he wouldn't let him harm his herd.  
As fast as he could he followed the scent, jumped behind the bushes and nosed the ground.  
The grass rustled.

Diego flinched, but he wouldn't run away like a kitten.  
Instead, he inspected his surroundings. The smell was gone, but Diego knew that the other saber couldn't be far away.  
After a while he gave up and lumbered back to the camp, oblivious to the pair of green eyes that was following him.

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When Manny woke up this morning he was surprised to see that Diego was still fast asleep- normally the saber was the first one to wake up.  
He watched him for a few seconds; even in his sleep he looked tense and as if he was worried about something.

Manny decided not to wake him up- Diego hadn't been himself lately, and a little rest would do him good.  
When the mammoth looked around he saw that everyone was already awake, except Sid of course.

Ellie was just talking with Peaches about something, but she stopped when she saw her mate.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she smiled.

"The same to you." Manny yawned. "What's wrong with Diego? Have you ever seen him sleeping that long?"

"Well, I think he hasn't slept at all last night. I woke up very early today and Diego was still sitting there in the same position as yesterday, wide awake. We should leave him alone today."

"No hunting lessons?", Peaches asked with sad eyes.  
Manny was surprised. She actually _liked _this nonsense?

"Peaches, I think we've already told you that yesterday: there's another saber in the forest, it would be just too dangerous," he explained.

"But uncle Diego would protect me!", Peaches retorted defiantly.

"Uncle Diego couldn't even protect himself- look at him! He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks- he would be prey for the other saber."

"Sabers eat other sabers?" Peaches looked disgusted.

Manny shrugged. "I don't know, if they are very hungry-"

"Manny!", Ellie scolded.

"Ah- no, of course they don't, Peaches."

"I think we all should stay in the camp today," Ellie said to change the topic. "I know Diego said that this saber is alone, but if he's wrong we are _all _prey."

"Speaking of which...", Manny interposed, "where are Crash and Eddie?"

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Usually the forest was a calm, quiet and peaceful place.

Now you could hear loud laughter and two annyoing voices that could have woken up every single animal in here.

Two possums were brachiating through the forest, not caring of how loud they were.

"Hey, hey, Eddie, look at this!" Crash had stopped on a slimsy branch.

"What is it?"

Crash grinned and pointed to the ground. "Looks like Diego has finally decided to wake up!"  
Indeed, there was a saber standing beneath the possums' branch.

"He could really use some morning exercise, don't ya think?"

They looked at each other with malicious grins and grabbed their blastpipes.

"Ready?", Crash asked.  
"Ready!"

"FIRE!"

Astonished, the saber looked up at the possums when suddenly dozens of tiny pebbles hit him on his head.

"STOP!", Crash yelled.

"Stop?"

"That- that's not Diego!"

"Uh- oh..."

Unfortunately, the branch they were standing on was breaking, and the two possums landed directly in front of the saber's huge paws.

"RUN!"  
But the saber just laughed, much to the surprise of the two twin brothers.  
They froze when he started talking with a coarse voice. "Crash and Eddie, right?"

Slowly, the possums turned around.  
"H-how do you know my name?", Crash asked, awestruck.

"How do you know _my _name?", Eddie repeated the question with huge eyes.

"Are you santa?" Crash looked like a little kid now.

"Who's santa?", the saber asked.

Crash looked at him. He really did look a lot like Diego, but now he wondered how he could have mistaken those two.

This saber was a lot sturdier and taller than Diego, and his fur was a little darker.  
His eyes were the same though- green, clever and a little devious.

"No one," Eddie answered. "But seriously, dude- how do you know our names?"

"I'll explain that later. Don't worry, I won't try to eat you- why should I, of the whole herd you two are my favorites."

"Wha- how-," Crash stumbled.

The saber laughed again, but before he could answer, they heard loud trampling and Ellie, Manny, Peaches, Sid and a very tired looking Diego joined up with them.

"There you are," Ellie said reliefed, but then she saw the other saber.

"Stay away from my brothers!", she yelled.

Crash was surprised that the stranger didn't even frown at the fact that a mammoth had just called two possums her _brothers.  
_Instead, his eyes lit up. "Ellie- it's an honor to finally meet you!" He took a little bow.

"WHAT?!", the whole herd screamed in unison.

"Ellie- do... do you know that saber?", Manny asked, confused.

"She doesn't, Manfred. But _I _know _her_. I know everyone of you. There we have Sid, the laziest sloth of all. And Peaches, the cutest little mammoth you'll ever see." The saber chuckled, before his eyes met Diego's. "And Diego, the bravest saber tooth tiger on this planet!"

Diego's tired eyes darkened. "So _you _are the saber I've smelt! How long have you been stalking us?"

The other saber shrugged. "Two or three weeks?"

Diego was suddenly wide awake. "Two or three weeks? _Two or three weeks? _Why did you do that- you almost gave me a heart attack! And why haven't I noticed you all that time?"

"Well... I've rolled myself in animal faeces to overlay my scent. I guess I was just too careless the last few days- you've nearly caught me!"

The two possums, the mammoths and Sid looked disgusted when they heard "animal fecal", but Diego kept a straight face- he knew that trick.

"Why have you been following us?", he asked with a threatening deep voice.

"Well, this might be a little shock for you, but... I think we're brothers."


	3. Agu

**I'm glad you like this story, thank you so much that you bothered to review :DD (please tell me if you have anything to criticise).****  
**

**This chapter will be rather boring, and the next one probably too, but I'm still pretty happy with it. If you are divided on that, please tell me- criticism would help me a lot :)  
**

The words of the stranger needed a little time to sink in.  
Ellie was wide eyed and opened- and closed her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but failed.

Crash and Eddie looked from Diego to the saber and then back to Diego.  
Manny frowned and for the first time in his life he was speechless.  
Peaches didn't understand any of this. She looked at her parents as though she was hoping for an explanation.

Diego had a grim expression on his face, not sure whether this was a stupid joke or not.  
The strange saber just smiled at him and waited for an answer patiently.

Sid was the first one to find his voice again.  
"Weell, good joke, kitty, but I doubt that Diego really _has _siblings at all."

"How would you know?", the stranger asked in an amused tone.

"Don't answer that, Sid," Diego hissed before the sloth could say anything. Then he turned back to the other saber.  
"Tell me your name," he demanded.

The saber didn't seem to be offended by Diego's unfriendliness. He just said "I'm Agu" in a buoyant tone and waited for the other saber's answer.  
Diego's eyes widened. There was another awkward silence before he slowly trotted towards Agu and began to smell at him.

Then, slowly but surely, cognition appeared in his eyes. His mouth corners started twitching.

Ellie and Manny exchanged worried looks while Peaches still didn't know what this was all about.

"Do you recognize me now?", Agu asked, still grinning.

"I-I do!" Diego was out of words. Now he knew why this smell was so familiar!  
Relief, happyness and amazement overcame him. These emotions seeped into his cheeks and he started grinning, they crawled into his legs and he started jumping and rearing up, they established in his throat and he started to purr, to laugh and to cry at the same time- it was the stupidest and most ridiculous thing he had ever done in his life, and later he would feel really ashamed for it, but Agu acted the same way, happy that his brother had finally recognized him, while the rest of the herd was still standing in the background awkwardly.

When the two big cats were finally done with their strange greeting ritual, the questions started.

"Where have you been?"

"How are you?"

"Cubs? Mate?"

"What are you doing here?"

"And what are _you _doing here?"

This went on for a couple of minutes, and all of those questions remained unanswered.  
Then, finally, Manny found his voice again.

"So... would you like to explain this to us? Why have we never heard of Agu?", he asked Diego, who just shrugged and answered:  
"It's a long story. Maybe I will tell you some day."

"So... you two are _brothers?", _Crash said.

"_Two _Diegos?", Eddie moaned.

Agu laughed. "I like those guys."

"Seriously?", Diego grunted.

"Why are you alone on the way?", Ellie asked then. "Aren't sabers normally in a pack?"

Agu's eyes darkened and his happy mood seemed to fade.

Diego looked at him worried. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"The pack was killed," Agu finally said and Diego gasped.

"_Everyone?!"_

"Everyone."

"H-how did that happen?"

Agu shrugged. "Humans."

Hatred obscured Diego's eyes. "Are you sure no one survived? Kira? Shetani? Tido? Finan?...dad? They are all dead?"

Agu nodded. "Yes... but Kira, dad and a few other pack members have already died before this happened. Kira died while fighting enemy sabers and dad fell off a cliff and drowned like a kitten."

"Who's Kira?", Sid asked curiously.

"Shut up, Sid!", Manny scolded. "This is a thing between Diego and his brother."

Diego looked devastated, but then his shoulders tightened again and he looked up at his brother. "Well, I should have known that most of them aren't alive anymore. Our father has unnecessarily endangered our pack so often that this is no surprise... but, Agu... why did you watch us for almost three weeks instead of telling me that you were here?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you really were my brother," Agu explained. "So I followed you wherever you went until I was sure it was you. I decided to drop my disguise, but I guess you haven't recognized me and thought I was a hostile saber."

"Indeed," Diego said dryly. "So... what are you gonna do now?"

"I don't know," Agu said. "I guess I'm on my own."

"You- you don't want to leave again, do you? Please don't, Agu- I just found you again, I don't want to lose you!"

Ellie then looked at Manny interrogatively. _Why don't we intrigue him into our herd? _

Manny's eyes widened and he shook his head. _NO!_

But Ellie just rolled her eyes. "Agu," she said softly. "You can stay with us if you want."  
Manny moaned inwardly. His mate could be so _stubborn _sometimes!

Agu looked surprised, but also pleased and grateful. "Well, if that's okay for the other herd members...?"

"Absolutely!", the possums said in unison.

"You seem to be a cool guy, unlike Mr Can't-Take-A-Joke here," Crash said, pointing at Diego.

"Now I have _two _uncle Diegos!", Peaches exclaimed happily, which made Agu chuckle.

"You sure have!" He smiled down at the little mammoth.

"Yay! A new herd member!", Sid exclaimed and hugged the saber joyfully.

"Hey, let go of me!", Agu hissed and shoved the sloth away.

"Aw, Diego doesn't like that either," Sid murmured unhappily.

Manny seemed to be the only one who didn't like the idea of another saber joining their little group.  
Especially not if it was_ Diego's _brother.

Sure, Diego was the most loyal friend Manny had ever had, and he knew that he would fight for them until he couldn't breathe anymore if it was necessary, but he hadn't always been like that.

When they had met the first time, Diego had tried to ambush him and Sid so that his pack leader, Soto could eat them and the human baby they had with them. Diego had shown some impressive acting- and charisma skills when he had pretended he was their friend even though he was already licking his mouth in the expectation to maul the mammoth. Those skills, his aggressiveness and his strength had made him a dangerous enemy.

Manny didn't know what would have happened if he hadn't saved Diego's life on their little journey- the saber probably wouldn't have gotten any compunctions and Manny and Sid would be dead by now.

What if Agu had the same character as his brother?  
What if he had the same acting skills, the same charisma, the same aggressiveness? And he actually _did _look a whole lot stronger than Diego.  
What if he _didn't _get compunctions? What if he was already planning an ambush right at this moment?

If his "dead" pack was watching them?

"Manny, come on, we are going back!", Ellie said and Manny realized that his herd was already gone. "Agu has some stories he wants to tell us!"  
Then she followed the others, leaving Manny there full of doubts and worries, until there was suddenly a thought that nearly made his heart stop.

_What if this saber was already planning to kill and eat Peaches?_


	4. His story

**Your reviews are really motivating- thanks :)) Like I said, criticism is also appreciated^^  
Well, this chapter is mainly about Agu's past, I hope you like it **

Back at the camp there were a lot of questions such as "How can a few humans kill a whole pack of sabers?", "How long were you alone on the way before you met us?" and "How did you end up here? Did you already know you would meet Diego?"

Agu, who sat so close at his brother's side that their furs brushed together, just smiled patiently until the questions stopped and he finally got a chance to answer them. The possums were lying at Agu's other side, their heads rested upon their paws, and looked at the saber eagerly, and Sid sat next to Diego, while the little mammoth family was sitting on the other side of the campfire.

Manny watched Agu with distrust and wondered how his herd could be so naive- maybe they had just seen that bit of joy in Diego's eyes, who now finally looked happy again for the first time in months. Why had he been so moody lately? Why did he suddenly look like everything was okay now?  
Maybe he had told the truth and he really just hadn't slept very well like he always told Ellie when she asked him what was wrong.

Then he looked at Peaches, and the worry came back.  
As happy as he was that Diego was finally in a good mood again, he didn't want to put his daughter in danger.  
Manny swore to himself, if this _Agu _would lay one claw on her, he would die a painful death!

He gazed back at the saber when he started to talk with a deep and coarse voice.

"So you want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened."  
Everyone except Manny leaned forward. "Is this story G-rated?", he asked, trying to sound utterly bored. "If it's not, tell me now so I can tuck Peaches and the sloth in!"

"Hey, why me?", Sid revolted.

"Because Diego once told you about his hunting success and you started crying and had nightmares about dead gazelles for almost one year!"

Sid stared at the ground, embarrassed. "True."

One of Agu's ears twitched in amusement. "Well, it's not a bedtime story, but if I skip the bloody parts they can stay... or at least Peaches can, she looks like she has cojones." Peaches' eyes lit up when she heard the compliment. Then Agu looked at Sid. "I'm not sure whether it's too violent for you, though..."

"Haa haa, very funny," Sid said, not looking very amused.

"Aw, come on, he's just joking," Diego grinned. "But now I want to know what happened! How did dad die exactly now?"

Manny was surprised at how casual the saber talked about the death of his father- it didn't really seem to sadden him.

"Like I said, he drowned," Agu said, not looking that affected either. "Slept too close to the cliff, rolled over in his sleep, and fell right into the water. I tried to help him- don't look at me like that, Diego, I really did- but it was too late. After that Tido became the alpha."

"Wow! Tido? Really? But he was always so shy when he was still a cub!"

"Yes, but he got a lot sturdier and more self assured when he grew up. Kira was his mate; they had two cubs," Agu said.

"Tido? Kira? Who are they?", Crash interrupted.

"Friends," Agu simply said. "We grew up with them in the pack. Tido was a good leader, he really was- way better than our _father."  
_The saber spit out the last word with disgust, but Manny decided not to ask him why- maybe he would come to that point later.

"But one day," Agu continued, "he got careless. We had wandered from place to place in order to find prey, and after we had finally found one, we were exhausted. Three cubs had died while we were rambling. We were too tired to notice that we had established ourselves in the territory of another saber pack. They attacked us in the middle of the night, while everyone was asleep. Kira defended her cubs and paid with her life- Tido never came over it. I tried to avenge her death, but the saber that had killed her was just too strong- I didn't have a chance, even when Tido tried to help me and also attacked the murderer of his mate. The hostile saber hit me across the face with unsheathed claws and I bumped against a rock- after that I fell unconcious. When I woke up I realized that we had lost the fight. There was blood and shreds of fur everywhere, and our elders, every single cub and two or three other sabers were dead. Only I, Tido, Shetani, Kito, Manu, Aliya, Sira, Mali and two or three elders were left. Tido was standing over the corpses of Kira and his cubs... I will never forget the look he had on his face." Agu gazed at Diego. What was that in his eyes? Was it... sympathy? Why would he feel sympathy for Diego when it hadn't even happened to him?

Diego, however, ignored it. "What happened then?"

"Tido was always talking about taking revenge, and that fool was actually about to challenge the whole pack alone, but we managed to stop him... that wasn't the only problem, though. Tido had gone completely insane. He... he even tried to kill me, just to appease his hunger for revenge. He wanted to see blood, to sink his claws into the flesh of another saber, no matter _which _saber it belonged to-"

"Weell, I guess it's time for bed, Peaches," Ellie said quickly.

Agu cleared his throat sheepishly. "Oh, sorry- I've completely forgotten about the young lady..."

"I don't _want _to sleep yet, mom, I want to hear the story!"

"Maybe some other time," Manny said quickly.

"Cripes!", Peaches grumbled.

"Continue!", the possums exclaimed impatiently while Ellie brought her daughter into the cave that was the mammoth's shelter.

"Where was I? Oh, right. Tido wanted to kill. He attacked me, only because the other pack members were out hunting and I was in charge to look after him. Without a forewarning, without saying even one word he jumped at me with unsheathed claws- just out of the blue. Something must have snapped inside him at that moment. The tackle had caught me off guard, so I didn't fight back at first; I was too surprised to move even one muscle. Tido was just about to dig his teeth into my throat, when suddenly someone attacked him and knocked him off his paws. I looked up and saw it was Finan- you remember Finan, right?"

"You mean that little showoff who couldn't even hunt down his own prey if he tried?", Diego snorted. "How could I forget him? When we were still cubs, he used to play mean pranks on me every day and humiliated me in front of all the other kits whenever he could!"

Agu nodded. "Right- and the worst is; he hadn't changed a bit. He was even worse when the female tigers suddenly started to pay attention to him. After you had left us, Diego, he always referred to you as a 'coward' or 'traitor', even though he didn't even know the whole story. And now I was the butt of his stupid jokes, too. More than one time a day I heard him saying 'Hey, and when are _you _going to screw up like your brother did?' And the other pack members agreed, laughing at me, backing Finan up..."

This caught Manny's attention. "What had you done, Diego?"

"That's a completely different story," Diego said coldly. "Let's concentrate on this one."  
Something in his voice told Manny to leave it at that.

Diego turned back to Agu. "Go on."

"Hm, I guess it's pointless then to ask you what happened after you had left?", Agu asked.

"Maybe some other time," Diego replied, and his voice softened.

"Alright, then I'll just continue... you can imagine how surprised I was to see that he, Finan, of all people, had just saved my life. He was arrogant, he was aggressive, he was narcisstic, and he hated me more than anything, but he would never watch another pack member getting killed, you've got to give him credit for that.  
He pinned Tido, who was already weakened enough, down to the ground and demanded answers. At first he thought that I had attacked Tido and said something like 'I knew you'd follow in the footsteps of Diego!', but I explained it to him, and, weird enough, he believed me.

Tido wasn't punished, of course- after all, he was still the alpha. After he had attacked me, he became even more confused and aggressive.  
His bloodthirst blazed up worse than before.

One day I woke up and saw that he was gone. At first I thought he was just out hunting, but then I remembered that he hadn't gone hunting since Kira's death, and he was getting worse and worse each day- why would he now suddenly be healthy enough to go out hunting just on his own?

I picked up his scent and asked the pack to follow me. Sure, I wasn't the alpha, nor the beta, but this was too important to give long explanations.  
Thank god, the pack didn't ask too many questions- Finan did, of course, and refused to follow me at first, but he knew it was about Tido, so he agreed to search for him eventually; if he could take the lead. I didn't like that idea, after all Finan had never really been reliable. However, there was too little time to argue, and so Finan led the way. We didn't have to walk long until we finally found Tido's dead body."

Diego gasped. "What happened?"

"It was the day our whole pack died," Agu explained, and his voice sounded a little distressed now. "Only a few weeks ago. Tido had found a pack of humans and decided to take his hunger for revenge out on them- alone. Of course he didn't have a chance against their stupid dogs and those spiky sticks. Our pack was devastated, and Finan, looking shattered, encouraged them to take revenge. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. I don't know how big the human pack was, but it was bigger than our pack, that's for sure. We didn't manage to kill even one human. They managed to kill every single saber of our pack. Finan was the first one to die- he had overestimated his own strength and thought he could take on two humans, who were just about to kill Shetani. One of the humans stabbed him into the throat with his stick, the other one sank his stick into his stomach; Finan died right away. The humans slaughtered our pack one by one, and after a while I was the only saber who was still left. They aimed their sticks at me, but then one of them, probably the alpha, yelled something and they retreated- I think killing one single saber who didn't even pose a threat to them anymore was a waste of time in their eyes. I watched over the scene in front of my eyes- everyone I had grown up with, our whole kin, and even the strongest and most formidable sabers lay at my feet, dead and smeared with blood. I was on my own now, and it sure took me some time to get used to that. Every morning when I woke up I expected to see Shetani lying next to me and the other sabers snoring loudly, but all I saw was an empty cave, and the smell of the pack was still present. I had never felt so alone before in my life- except that time you left us, Diego... I decided to leave our old, empty home, but I didn't know where to go, so I just walked into a random direction, following my nose. After a few days, I stranded here, and I saw you, Diego.  
At first I couldn't believe my eyes, my brain told me that this was impossible, so I decided not to approach you right away. And now... now we're here. You can believe me when I'm saying today was the best day of my life."

Agu ended his story with a warm smile at his brother. "What happened to our pack was a tragedy... but I think that we found each other again was fate." He nudged Diego lightly on the shoulder with his nose.

Diego also tried to smile, but it looked forced and crooked. "Yeah... but it's still hard to believe that Tido became like this... and that he died such an ignoble death. I... I remember the times we used to play together every day, and how he flinched at every sound."

"I'm so sorry," Ellie said, who had already come back. She looked at the two brothers with sad eyes.

Diego shrugged. "Sabers live a dangerous life," he simply said. "As far as I remember our pack was wild and unreasonable. Their death shouldn't even surprise me... but it still affects me."

"There's one thing I don't get," Manny spoke up. "You make it sound like every single pack member was killed instantly- but don't sabers have nine lifes?"

"They do," Diego explained. "But if the wound is just too deep, too fatal, a saber will die at any rate, no matter how many lifes it has still left."

Agu nodded. "Right, and the humans have not only killed my pack, they have _slaughtered _them until blood and bowels were the only things that remained of them."

"Great, now I will have nightmares for the next _two _years!", Sid mumbled. "But hey, Diego, I've got a question- why have you left the pack? I mean- when we met you, you were in _Soto's _pack, weren't you?"

Agu's ears perked up, but he remained silent.

Manny had wondered about that too and waited for an answer with interest- maybe Diego would be ready to talk about it now. But the saber just closed his eyes.

"It was a long day, Sid, and it's a very long story to tell." He yawned to underline his words, and Manny couldn't help but feeling disappointed.  
Agu's story hadn't explained anything at all, it had just brought up more questions.

Why had Diego left the pack? Had he really betrayed it? Had the alpha banished him?And why did Agu give his brother this sympathetic look when he talked about this Tido's dead mate and cubs? Had Diego and Tido really been that close? Why had Diego never told them anything at all about his past?

Agu's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You're right- I think we should sleep now. Oh, and- thank you so much for letting me stay here, that's so kind of you!"

"You're the brother of our best friend," Ellie said, smiling down at the saber. "What heartless creatures would we be if we told you to leave and rip you two apart a second time, especially after everything you had to go through?"

"_Smart _heartless creatures," Manny murmured, but fortunately nobody heard it- even though the mammoth thought he saw Agu's ear slightly turning into his direction and his green eyes staring at him disdainfully for a second, but it was so short that he would have missed it if he had blinked- maybe he had just fancied it.

Agu also yawned now and lay down. "You are the kindest animals I've ever come across- I'm deeply indebted to you. Sleep well."

"Same to you," Sid answered, lying down on his rock and doing his ritual of shifting around until finally falling asleep.  
"Yeah, good night," Crash, Eddie and Ellie said before frequenting their usual sleeping places.

"Night," Diego mumbled, barely hearable, and rested one paw at his brother's back before pillowing his head on it.

About one minute later he started snoring.  
Manny pretended to be asleep as well and only left his right eye partly open, just to see Agu's green, glowing eyes glaring at him with an unreadable expression.


	5. Gory dreams

**Hey:D thanks for your reviews again :)  
**

**I decided to update a little earlier this time because this chapter doesn't have that much action in it. I hope you still enjoy it :)  
Warnings for this chapter: it will get very... gory, with zombies and such, so if you don't like things like this better don't read the first half of the chapter- it's not that important for the story anyway!**_  
_

_It was a beautiful day, and the sun was warming Diego's fur while he was snoozing on a big rock._  
_He didn't hear the other saber cub sneaking up to him, until-_

_"Tag, you're it!" Agu lightly touched his little brother's shoulder and recoiled immediately._  
_"You cheater!", Diego laughed an ran after him, but the other saber was too fast._

_After a while he just lunged at Agu and knocked him off his paws._  
_Still laughing they went head over heels down a hill, but they didn't recognize the other cub that was standing at the foot of it and just carried the poor screaming thing off._

_When they finally came to a halt they scrambled up to their paws, snickering and still unaware of the presence of the third cub until they heard a faint wail._

_Agu grinned when he looked at the small, grayish bundle with the huge blue eyes and paws that were way too big for his skinny body._  
_"Tido! Hey, are you okay, buddy?"_

_"Y-yes, I guess..."_

_Diego gave him a lopsided smile. "Sorry, Tido... we haven't seen you standing there."_

_The cub got up to its paws. "It's okay," he said with a little smile. "C-can I play along with you? I-I mean if it's okay for you?"_  
_The brothers chuckled- Tido's shyness could be so adorable sometimes._

_"Sure- you're it!" Diego touched his shoulder just as Agu had done it a few minutes ago and turned around, running as fast as he could._  
_They played tag until they came to the waterhole where they saw three other cubs sitting: Shetani, a sturdy tigress with tawny fur, white paws and a black spot around one of her deep brown eyes, Kira, a white, slender tigress with graceful features and blue eyes, and Finan, a well built male, a bit older than the two females, with brown fur, black rims on his ears and sparkling intelligence in his amber eyes._

_Diego was surprised when he didn't taunt them like he usually did._

_Kira and Shetani greeted the trio and stood up. Finan was still oddly quiet and stayed where he was._  
_The other cubs ignored him though and now played tag in a group of five._

_"Gotcha!", Kira laughed when she had finally caught Tido, who giggled nervously._  
_While they were playing, they didn't notice that they had already left Finan and the waterhole behind them._

_Diego really enjoyed playing with the other cubs of the pack- always when he was with them, he felt happy and loved._

_"We should go back now," Shetani said after a while, panting. "It's already getting dark."_

_But when Diego looked up at the sky he saw that it wasn't exactly getting dark- there were just black clouds obscuring the sun, and suddenly it started to thunder. The other cubs didn't seem to notice. They were walking back to the waterhole casually._

_"Where's Agu?", Diego asked suddenly when he noticed that his older brother was gone, but he didn't receive an answer. _

_He saw that Tido started limping. "Tido? What's wrong, buddy? Have you sprained your paw?"_  
_Still no answer. "Guys, what's going on here?"_

_They finally arrived back at the waterhole, and Diego heard himself gasping for air. There was no water anymore- it was blood. A pool of blood._  
_And in the middle of it, there was Finan. Red liquid poured out of his throat and stomach, and it didn't stop, oozed Diego's paws, and loud thunder was heard.  
Diego turned around to his friends and let out a small scream._

_Tido's gray fur was now damp and red, one of his eyes was closed, the other one was half lidded and his right foreleg looked crippled.  
Shetani looked worse. Where her left eye was supposed to be was just a red hole with maggots escaping from it, she had several cuts and serious wounds all over her small body and one of her ears was torn._

_Kira looked the worst- she was slashed from her throat to her lower body, and Diego could see her organs sticking out. With a spine chilling grin (Diego could see blood coming out of her mouth) she slowly started walking towards him. The others followed._

_Suddenly the whole pack was there, covered with blood. Only his father, Danyo, didn't look injured, but his dark tawny fur was wet and his breathing sounded labored._

_Agu was still gone._

_"Traitor," Diego suddenly heard. It sounded like several voices had spoken in an undiscussed unity. It was only a whispering, but still clearly intelligible. And again: "Traitor. Traitor. Traitor."_

_He saw his mother, her bright sandy fur now also red._  
_Her voice was the only one sticking out. _"Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!"

_Then there were three other cubs, a bit smaller than Diego- one of them had white fur and bright blue eyes, staring at him sadly, the other one had tawny fur, just like him, black spots on its legs, white paws and turquoise eyes, while the last one had dark fur just like his brother Agu, who was now suddenly standing behind them. Then the four of them disappeared and the pack slowly and threateningly started to approach him.  
"Traitor! Traitor! Traitor! Diego... Diego... Diego.."_

"...Diego! Diego! DIEGO!"  
"Wha-?"

"Hey, what's wrong with you?", Agu asked. "You have even managed to wake the sloth up! Did you know that you talk in your sleep?"  
Diego looked up, suddenly wide awake and saw his whole herd frowning at him.

It was very early in the morning and the day was just dawning.  
Diego was panting and he had a terrified expression on his face. He had already had this nightmare before- a long, long time ago- but only without all the blood and the zombies.

Probably Agu's story last night had affected him more than he had thought.  
"What did I say?", he asked them, his voice not as steady as he had hoped it would be.

Agu shrugged. "You said my name a few times, and Tido's, too. Then you just started screaming _no, please, no!"_

"Honey, would you like to talk about it?", Ellie asked softly, even though she knew by herself that asking the proud saber something like this was just a waste of time.

Diego shook his head. "No, thanks, I'm fine- hey, don't look at me like that, I'm not the first person on this planet to have a nightmare!"

"The thing with your birth pack really disturbed you, didn't it?", Ellie asked empathetically.

"_I'm fine!" _Diego felt kinda humiliated because he had no self control in his sleep- he imagined himself lying there, twitching and restlessly rolling around and yelling his lungs out with his herd watching him. And the worst was the symphathy in their eyes after he woke up - there was not even one thing he hated more than pity.

Thank god Agu was here now. "Now that you're awake," he said before Ellie got a chance to retort, "why don't we go out hunting together? Just like in the good old times?"

Diego felt himself smiling. He couldn't imagine anything better than going out hunting with his long lost brother right now.  
It would distract him from his nightmare, or so he hoped. "Sure."

"Can I come with you?", Peaches asked.

"Over my dead body!", Manny said sternly.

"Pleease? Come on, dad, I know how it works now! Uncle Diego showed me!"

Agu laughed. "I've never seen a hunting mammoth before. But your father is right, young lady. You are not supposed to see carnivores hunting- I'm afraid you're too young."

"Oo-kaay," Peaches murmured. "But when you come back, can you two give me hunting lessons together then? That would be _awesome!"_

"You're a very special mammoth, you know that?", Agu smiled.

"Can you?"

"No, they can't!", Manny cut in. He wouldn't let his daughter walk into some kind of planned ambush.

"Manny!", Ellie scolded. "There are no other sabers in the forest, it's save- and Peaches would have _two _big cats to protect her now."

She obviously didn't get that Manny wasn't worried about other sabers, but that it was Agu he didn't trust.  
He looked into her eyes and sighed when he realized that she wouldn't indulge.

"Okay, why not," he finally said.

Peaches leaped for joy. "Yeah!"

"But," Manny added, "_I _will come with you- I would really like to watch one of those... _hunting lessons _of yours."  
Peaches eyes lit up.

"Awesome! A hunting lesson with my two uncle Diegos _and _my dad!"

"You know what?", Ellie smiled. "I'd like to see that, too."

"Count us in!", Eddie and Crash exclaimed excitedly.

They all looked at Sid.  
"All right," the sloth said, "but we won't actually kill anything, will we?"

Manny just rolled his eyes at the comment.

Diego felt his heart warming, even though his eyes were bland- he wouldn't show them how touched he felt by the fact that his herd cared for saber- lessons. He had felt so seperated the last few months, without another saber to talk to, it had made him crazy.  
He had often wondered what would happen if he just died all of a sudden- he would die with all his knowledge about old saber traditions, about the best hunting tricks, and he would die before he could share all this knowledge. No one would remember him, no one would pass his lessons and his wisdom on. Of course he hadn't told anyone until this lonely feeling was about to eat him from the inside. Peaches was his only hope, she was his apprentice, and she would make him very proud one day.

Now his whole herd suddenly cared and he didn't even have to ask them- _and _he had another saber to talk to.  
Diego didn't remember the last time he had felt so happy and immediately forgot his nightmare.

"Alright- when we come back," he said then, "we will give all of you hunting lessons."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"So...", Agu asked Diego on their way through the forest. "When did you start giving a mammoth hunting lessons?"

Diego shrugged. "I don't know... a few months ago."

"May I ask you why?"

"Aw, I dunno. Can we stop talking about this now?"

Agu looked at him with a thoughtful expression. Then he grinned. "You haven't changed a bit, you know that? You're still so incredibly proud that you would rather die than showing just a tiny little bit of emotion. There's something that's bothering you, I know that- after all I've spied on you for the past few weeks."

"I'm fine," Diego said for the second time this morning and for the thousanth time this year.

"Reeally," Agu replied sarcastically. "I know you, Diego. When we were still cubs and you had a problem you acted the same way.  
You looked at the ground and said 'I'm fine' in that annoyed tone, and you were grumpy and aggressive all the time, yelled at other sabers who wanted to help you..."

"Agu, we haven't seen each other in like eight years- do we really have to talk about this?"

Agu shook his head. "Not if you really don't want to. Can I ask you something?"

"As long as it doesn't involve my feelings this time..."

"No, don't worry- I know that you don't like to talk about stuff like that. But I'd like to know how your weird little herd came into being?"

Diego smiled. "That's a long story."  
"I have time."

"Alright... well, I was in a new pack, and a saber called Soto was my leader. I had earned his trust and he made me his second- in- command.  
One day the humans attacked us out of the blue and erased the half of our pack, and Soto wanted to take revenge. He instructed me to kidnap the baby of the human pack's alpha, but... well, its mother ran away with it before I could grab it. I followed her and nearly got her, but then she jumped down the water fall.

Soto told me I would 'serve as replacement' if I didn't get him the baby, so I did as I was told. I searched for it, but a sloth and a mammoth, namely Sid and Manny, had already taken it in to bring it back to the humans- the only problem was that the humans had already continued their journey.  
Manny hired me as their tracker, and from then on we travelled together, only that I didn't have the intention to bring the baby back to the humans- I had promised Soto to bring him the baby _and _the mammoth. On our journey Manny saved my life though- I nearly fell into a lava flow after the ground had suddenly gaped. Manny almost died while he tried to help me, and I started to get compunctions. When we arrived at Half Peak, the meeting spot of the pack and me, I started to realize that I couldn't let him, Sid and the baby die. I told them about the ambush, and of course they weren't pleased- Manny even tried to kill me. I had to act fast, so I thought of a plan to save my new little herd.

Well, long story short, the pack went after Manny, Sid and the baby, I interposed myself between Soto and Manny when they were just about to kill him, and we fought each other. Soto knocked me out and managed to hurt me really bad, but Manny threw him against a stone wall with his tusks, which made the icicles above Soto fall down, and they pierced through his skin- I think he was dead immediately.

I was still on the ground and thought I would lose all my lifes now, after all the wounds were pretty deep.  
Sid and Manny thanked me for my help and made their farewells before they brought the baby back to its pack.  
After a while I realized that I had only lost one life and caught up with them. We travelled to the south together, and after a while we also met Ellie and the possums, which she had grown up with. Well... that's the whole story."

Agu had listened silently. Then he spoke up: "You turned against your pack leader to save your friends?"

"Yup."

"Wow... they are really lucky to have a friend like you!"

"Not really... if it wasn't for me there wouldn't even have been an ambush!"

"And the herd wouldn't exist now. Everything happens for a reason, Diego."

"Maybe so...", Diego mumbled. He had still a guilty conscience because of his earlier plans to kill Manny and Sid.

"Now that you've mentioned it, Diego- how many lifes have you still got left?"

"Huh?" Diego was surprised at the random question.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to..."

Diego thought for a second, wondering if he really should commit this to his brother.  
It was not that he didn't trust him- he just didn't want pity anymore.  
Then he finally admitted:

"Two. I've only got two lifes left."

To his surprise Agu just nodded. "That's what I thought. Sometimes you were just like dad- you brought yourself in danger so often that this is no surprise. How the hell did you lose all of them?"

Diego's mouth corners started twitching. His brother had always been really direct.

"That's not important right now, is it? It would take a year to list everything. Well, but I've lost one of my lives after I had left our pack... I just remember that I was really tired, and there was a snow storm. I just lay down and fell asleep."

"And what happened to your-"

Diego felt his heart tightening.

"Please, don't say it. Don't mention them."

"Alright, I'm sorry." He looked at Diego who suddenly looked crestfallen again, his happy mood had faded.

_Way to go, Agu..._

But then the older saber started grinning and he sneaked up to Diego. "Hey, Diego..."

"What?"

Agu lightly touched his shoulder with his paw. "Tag! You're it!"


	6. Hunting lessons

**Thanks for your reviews!** **:)  
Here's the next chapter, and I have to admit I'm not happy with it- but honestly, it was the best I could do.  
This took me a while, and no matter what I wrote, I didn't like it. ****But, well, the story has to go on, so I hope this chapter is not too stupid/boring/poorly written/whatever.**  
**This was just a little warning^^ **

* * *

Ellie gazed after the two sabers with a warm smile.

"This Agu seems really nice, don't you think?" she said when they were out of their sight.  
"Suure, if you think mammoth- calf- devouring monsters are nice," Manny responded dryly.

Ellie sighed. "What's your problem, honey? Do you really think he would harm our daughter?"

"I don't think, I _know! _I mean, come on, she's easy prey to him, and mammoths are a delicacy. I'm telling you, he's already licking his lips!"

"Oh, Manny, I know you're terrified at the thought of losing another family," Ellie said carefully- she knew that Manny's departed family was an awkward topic, and every time she mentioned them something seemed to die in his eyes, which nearly broke her heart. "But Diego has also lost a family once. He had to leave his own pack! He had to leave his friends and his brother behind, and now he has finally found him again- don't take this away from him.  
Agu is harmless."

"But our family-"

"Manny- you always forget that our family does not only consist of you, me, Peaches, Crash and Eddie. Sid and Diego are also a part of our family, and I don't have the heart to tell Diego's last living relative to leave- it would destroy Diego, do you want that to happen? _If _that happened one of our family members would be devastated and unhappy, he would fall back into his old depression, and I'd do anything to prevent that!"

"I get your point," Manny said, "but if you want me to be honest- I'd rather have a depressed Diego than a dead Peaches!"  
Ellie cast down her eyes. "Why do you think that Agu is dangerous?"

"I don't know, I just don't trust him. He's a _saber! _Haven't I already told you how Diego and I met? He pretended to be our friend, but had already planned an ambush! Who says that Agu isn't doing the same right now?"

"Agu has more important things to care about right now! He has finally found his brother again after such a long time, do you really think he would ruin this because of a good meal?"

"Well, maybe- sabers are unpredictable! This Agu may seem nice, but as a matter of fact he's an icecold killer!"

At this cue the grass parted and two sabers rolled out, laughing and purring.  
The whole herd marvelled at the sight- Diego lay on the ground and Agu playfully bit in one of his ears.  
They were both laughing like cubs, completely oblivious to their surroundings.

It was... _adorable.  
_Diego, the proud saber who never showed the smallest hints of affection, who always acted tough, who snapped at anyone who wanted to cheer him up whenever he was upset, now suddenly acted like a five-month- old, purring, laughing and occasionally crying "That's not fair!" or "I wasn't prepared for that!"

He and his brother playfully fought a fierce battle, and Agu seemed to win.  
The herd was just watching, not knowing how to react.  
Only Ellie grinned and looked at her mate. "So much for the icecold killer!"

Then Sid spoke up. "Aww, look at the two kitties, aren't they just cute? This makes me want to throw a ball of wool at them just to see if they would use it as a toy!"

The two sabers paused, finally realizing that they had been watched, and parted with awkward coughs and nervous explanations.

"This was adorable!", Ellie laughed.

"No!", Diego yelled desultory. "No, it wasn't! Sabers aren't adorable!"

"Well, but this _was _adorable!", Sid aggreed, and even Manny had to stifle a grin.

"Pah, whatever!" Crash crossed his arms. "We're still the cooler sibpair, aren't we, Eddie?"  
"Totally! This was _lame!"_

Peaches emerged from the cave. "Uncle Diego! Uncle Agu! You're back!"

"You have missed something!", Sid teased. "Those two fierce, tough sabers over there were just playing like kittens, purring and laughing and- _ack! _Okay, okay_, _let go of me, Agu, I'll take it back!"

"Wow, we really _do _have two Diegos in this herd now," Manny remarked as he watched Agu pinning the sloth down to the ground.  
Seemingly satisfied, the saber let go of him. "This really is fun, Diego! Do you know any more ways to annoy the sloth?"

"Oh, yes, one time I told him that every plant and every fruit on this planet had decayed and that he had to become a carnivore- he actually believed it and cried for three or four days."

"After the first day you could have told me!", Sid scolded.

"Yes, I _could _have, but I was enjoying this just too much."

"Guys!", Peaches exclaimed and drew all the attention to herself. "You promised me something!"

Diego frowned in a pretended lack of knowledge. "Did we, Agu?"  
Agu grinned. "I don't remember."

Ellie laughed. "Come on, you two, stop torturing her!"

"Alright, let's go," Agu said. "Diego and I will make _exquisite _hunters out of you all!"

"_Exquisite_?!", Crash exclaimed. "Dude, I thought you were cool!"

"Rule number one," Agu began, but was cut off by Eddie.

"Always listen to Agu?", he exclaimed, referring to Buck, the weasel- a crazy little chap with an eye patch and a dangerous attitude to life who had helped them to find Sid; the latter had been abducted by a female dinosaur because he had stolen her kids.

"Huh? Er- no!" Agu frowned. "Rule number one is: never, _never, _tease, insult or attack somebody who's bigger and stronger than you. Even the smallest cubs know that, but obviously you two don't, eh?"

"Never tease somebody who's stronger than you?", Crash complained. "Sabers are so _boring! _Where is the fun in life when you aren't even allowed to annoy other animals?"

"The _fun _in that is that you won't get eaten," Diego said in a threatening deep voice.

The possums were already starting to get on his nerves- Peaches was a way more pleasant apprentice.

"Still boring," Crash mumbled.

"Be quiet now, you two," Ellie interrupted their little argument. "Well, when does the hunting lesson start?"

"Right now," Diego answered.  
He suddenly thought of his very first hunting lesson with his father, Danyo.

_"No, no, no, no, Diego! That way the antilopes will recognize you over two miles distance! Stop clattering around like that! Aw, you are good for nothing! Agu, what do you think you're doing? I know, this is your first hunt, but you two are just behaving stupidly, it's unbelievable! Are you sabers or what? Too young? _Too young?_ Come on, shut up, Diego, you are two months old, I think you can start to help the pack to source prey! Stop whining, you little wuss, I didn't even slap you that hard!" _

He shook the memory off as if it was water and resorted back to his herd. "At first we will teach you how to sneak."

Manny rolled his eyes. "This is such a waste of time!"

"Feel free to leave- nobody forces you to stay here," Diego said.

"Come on Manny," Ellie addressed her mate. "This is gonna be fun!"

"Suure, tell me that when mammoths become carnivores!", Manny replied, rolling his eyes. "Oh, and apropos: the three of you would be the first ones I'd eat if I actually became a carnivore!" He pointed at Crash, Eddie and Sid, the worst irritants of this herd.

"Why does everyone want to eat me?", Sid complained.

"You may well ask," Diego said, wrinkling his nose at the smell of the sloth.

"Hey, hey, Diego, Agu!", Crash interrupted excitedly. "Can you tell us how to fight instead of how to hunt?"  
"Yeah, that would be so much cooler!", Eddie agreed.

"No way!", Manny scolded. "Peaches will not learn how to beat up other animals!"

"Er- Manny," Diego said in an apologetic tone, "I've already _told _your daughter how to fight, and, well, she has knocked me off my paws more than once. She- she actually is a natural talent."

Again, Manny just rolled his eyes.

"Cheer up," Agu grinned. "The young lady doesn't learn how to beat up other animals, but how to defend herself. It's actually pretty useful- for all of you!"

"Thanks, Agu." Diego smiled at his brother and Manny could see love and admiration in his eyes, which was somewhat amazing.  
He had always thought the only saber Diego admired was himself- he never confessed to a weakness, he was strong and proud, he was smart and ambitious, he was cold and sarcastic, and he was talented in so many things like tracking and hunting. Seeing this saber with wide, sparkling eyes now was the weirdest thing the mammoth had ever seen in his life.

Maybe Ellie was right. When Diego trusted Agu, maybe he should trust him too? After all Diego was an expert of knowing people; usually he was suspicious of everyone who could pose a threat to his herd, but he wasn't suspicious of Agu, not even one bit.

On the other hand Agu was his brother- who mistrusts their own brother?  
Maybe Diego's judgement was a little- no, a _lot-_dulled by that fact.

"Can we start now?", Peaches asked impatiently.

"You can start," Diego said. "Show the others what you have already learnt."

Peaches sat up straight. "Yes, sir!"

The herd giggled at the sight and Manny felt his heart warming. Every time he looked at his daughter he forgot all his problems and his worries. Especially when she had this excited look on her face- it reminded him of his departed firstborn, Lamin.

But then, with a painful pang in his heart, he realized that Lamin had had the same expression on his face, happy and carefree, just a few minutes before the humans had stoned him to death.  
Peaches was so much like him... and he couldn't stand the thought that Agu could be planning to take her away from him forever.  
That he was about to lose another family.

_How old would Lamin be today?, _he thought by himself. _Twelve? Thirteen maybe? In thirteen years- will I have to wonder how old Peaches would be then?_

"Can I practice on uncle Agu this time?" Peaches' voice brought him back to the present.

Every fibre in Manny's body protested. _No, no, no! She won't practice fighting with this saber!_

Ellie didn't share his opinion. "Oh, I'd like to see that!"

"Alright, young lady! Show me what you've got!" Agu lowered his head and shifted his weight on his forelegs.

Mannys frowned at Peaches, who crouched down, and Agu, doing the same.

Then his daughter let out a _"Rrrhaaa!" _and leaped at the saber.  
He dodged her attack gracefully and raised his paw- involuntarily Manny made sure that his claws were unsheathed.  
He beat down his arm- strong enough to throw Peaches off balance, but not strong enough to hurt her.

The little mammoth, however, was prepared for that and ducked- Agu's paw grasped at nothing.

Peaches took the chance and rammed him into the side- because he was only standing on three legs right now the attack caught him off guard and he hit the ground.

Manny still thought this was a waste of time, but he had to admit that he was impressed- his daughter, his little Peaches, had just brought down an adult saber!

Sure, that saber hadn't used his full strength, but still...

"Woow, that was _awesome__!_", he heard Eddie saying next to him.  
"Go, give him hell, Peaches!", Crash cheered.

Peaches put her forelegs on her uncle's shoulder triumphantly, but the fight wasn't over yet.  
Agu's hind legs made contact with Peaches' belly and with a little pressure he pushed her off him. She now lay on the ground- obviously she hadn't been prepared for that.

With lightning speed Agu scrambled back up to his feet and pinned Peaches down.  
She tried his trick too, vehemently trying to push him off with her hind legs, but unlike her he was prepared for that and kept his balance.

"Peaches- what do you do in a situation like this?", Diego asked leniently.

Peaches' little trunk suddenly hit Agu on his muzzle. Of course this wouldn't have impressed a hostile saber, but it would certainly distract him.

He loosened his grip involuntarily and Peaches used all her four legs to push him off.  
At the next moment she was on top of him- this time she made herself as heavy as possible, so that Agu had no chance to use his little trick from earlier.

"What would be the best thing to do now?", Diego asked.

Without any hesitation Peaches put her right foreleg on his throat and squeezed lightly.  
Then she got off him to hear the other sabers' assessment.

"That was really good, Peaches," he commended. "Especially your last move- you're absoluteley right. When you squeeze your foe's throat he will get less oxygen- which doesn't mean you have to choke him to death, but you can weaken him, so he won't have the strength to push you off him or to hurt you- you have the upper hand and thus you can decide what to do; it works almost every time. Just be careful that he doesn't scratch your stomach with his claws and that he doesn't have a chance to push you off!"

"Okay, uncle Diego!", Peaches replied proudly.

"I'm impressed, young lady," Agu said approvingly.

"Yeah, that was _awesome!"_, the possums exclaimed.  
"Can we put one over on Diego together now?", Crash asked.

Diego shrugged. "If you insist."  
Then he leaped at the twins, caught them off guard and held each of them under his forepaws.  
"There. Fight is over," he scoffed.

"Heey, come on, that was _uncool, _dude!", Crash complained.

"That's life- get used to it," Diego replied and let go of them.  
He was unaware of the glance the brothers shared.

He only heard them saying:  
"Now?"

"NOW!"

"What the-?!"

Before he could react Crash jumped on his head and covered his eyes with leaves while Eddie picked up a vine and ran circles around the saber with the effect that his legs were now tied together.

Agu watched the scene with blatant amusement.  
"Rule number two," he said. "Never mess with someone who's smarter than you."

Diego, who now lay on the ground, struggling to free himself from his bonds, looked at him indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"That you were just outsmarted by two possums," Agu scoffed.

"Oh, just wait until I get free!"

The herd laughed- this was definitely not their old, depressed Diego from a few days ago.  
_This _Diego had already gotten humiliated twice today and didn't even seem to care.

_That's because of Agu, _Manny thought. _He really benefits him._

While the possums were bugging Diego, Manny didn't notice that Agu suddenly sat right next to him.  
The herd didn't pay attention to them, and when Agu suddenly addressed Manny he winced in surprise.

"That's the Diego _I _know," he said. "He was just like that when he was still a cub."  
Manny tried to imagine Diego as a cub, but didn't succeed- when he looked at Diego, he sometimes forgot that he was a child once; thinking of him, small and playful, was impossible.

When Agu realized that he wouldn't receive and answer he continued. "You have wondered why Diego was behaving so weird before you met me, right?"

"Of course we have! He's our friend and we were worried about him," Manny replied.

Agu looked at him with a thoughtful expression. The mammoth saw that he was tempted to say something else, but then he hold it back.  
"We should go back now. I haven't eaten anything at all today. Hey, guys, release Diego, you can torture him later!"

"I _hate _you, Agu!", Diego said in pretended anger.

When he was finally free he ran after the possums. "Don't think you will get away with this!"

Peaches gazed after them and laughed. "This was the _best _fighting lesson I've ever had!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

In the evening they were all exhausted, but happy.  
Sid was just reliefed that he didn't have to see a poor little animal getting killed during the "hunting" lesson and the possums liked Agu even more now. Manny still wasn't sure what to think of him.

He had to admit, that _fighting lesson _today actually had been fun, but the worry about his daughter was still present.  
At the moment she was snuggled closely to him and Ellie, but she wasn't asleep yet.

Just like everyone in the camp she was watching Diego and Agu with a more or less disgusted expression.

"What are you doing?", Sid asked the two brothers who then looked up at him.

"Grooming each other's fur," Diego said casually and began licking Agu between his ears.

"You mean... you lick off the dirt from one another?", Crash asked and looked as if he was going to barf. "I mean, licking your own fur is okay, but licking _another _animal's fur?"

"That's completely normal," Agu answered, looking at them as if they were insane. "It's an act of affection- only friends or siblings do something like that."

Then he continued licking Diego's flank.

"Aw, get a cave!", Sid scoffed and ignored Diego's angry snarl.

After a while the two sabers lay down in the same position as yesterday, with Diego's paw and head rested upon his brother's back.

Not long after that everyone was sleeping soundly, except Manny.  
He watched Agu for a while, suddenly realizing that he looked... different when he was sleeping.  
Most animals look peaceful and relaxed when they are asleep, but Agu... he looked _dangerous._

His facial features seemed a little sharper, his lips were drawn back, showing his sharp teeth, and he had a nasty look on his face.  
The moon that stressed his muscles and bathed him in an eerie light wasn't helping.  
Gone was his friendly smile, his humour, his (pretended?) kindness...

Manny would have nearly given a shout when the saber suddenly started talking.

"Is something wrong, Manfred?" His eyes were still closed, which made the whole situation even scarier, and his voice sounded deep, calm and menacing.

"Go back to sleep," the mammoth just said, trying to sound dismissive.  
The saber didn't reply.

When Manny finally fell asleep Agu opened his green eyes and silently rose to his paws. He looked around, making sure that everyone was asleep- his gaze landed on Diego and he stared at him for a while with a blank expression. Then he walked into the forest.

* * *

**Well... don't say I didn't warn you xD Just as always: criticism appreciated^^ **


	7. Overreaction

**Aw, thanks so much :) I'm pretty self critical, especially when it comes to longer chapters.  
In this chapter a few secrets (okay, _one _secret) will be revealed. I hope you like it^^ **

* * *

As time passed the herd grew closer and closer to Agu.  
Every morning the two sabers went out hunting, and afterwards they gave Peaches hunting lessons in the camp.  
The possums enjoyed playing "annoy the sloth" with Agu, and Ellie had someone to make profounded and mature conversations with.  
Sid had found a new bodyguard in Agu; whenever Diego was mad at him, his brother prevented him from seriously hurting the sloth.

Three months had vanished now, and Manny was starting to think that, if Agu really had planned some kind of ambush, he would have already pulled it.  
But the picture of the not so peacefully sleeping saber was still etched in his mind. By day he sometimes watched Agu closely, trying to find a hint of the same morosity in his features, but he couldn't find it.

Every night, when the herd was asleep, he would watch Agu only to see that the saber looked like he was ready to maul somebody.  
And after a while Manny found out that Agu wasn't really sleeping.  
He had seen him opening his green eyes, shaking Diego off him and heading into the direction of the forest- god knows what he was doing there.  
Manny would like nothing better than to follow him, but he knew that the saber would not only be able to hear him, but also to smell him from a long distance.

He had considered telling Ellie, but he knew she would just shrug it off.  
In the meantime he had watched over his herd and made sure that nobody but Diego was ever alone with Agu.  
But after a while he realized that it wasn't even necessary since Diego and Agu suddenly preferred to keep to themselves.  
He had recognized the sudden change when the two of them wanted to go out hunting and Peaches asked Diego if he could give her some lessons afterwards. Diego hadn't even looked at her when he impatiently answered "Not today, Peaches!" and headed to the forest.

Diego hadn't talked to his herd members in a long time now, he was too busy talking with Agu, hunting with Agu, grooming Agu's fur, playing with Agu, taking a nap with Agu...  
It looked like Agu was trying to seperate Diego from his herd.

One time Diego was about to take a little walk with Peaches, but his brother had prevented him from doing so by suggesting to hunt together.  
They barely spent time with the herd anymore, but Manny wasn't too sad about it- he would do everything to keep Agu away from his daughter, even if that meant that they had to lose Diego.

On the other hand, it seemed to affect Peaches. She missed her uncles and was deeply hurt by their dismissive attitude.  
Ellie had tried to cheer her up. "It's just a phase. Diego is so happy to have his brother back that he doesn't want to share him with us- he wants to spend time with him alone first to catch up on the time they were seperated from each other. There's a lot they have to talk about, Peaches."

But Peaches didn't want to accept that. She still thought that her uncles were angry at her for some reason, so one day, after Diego had ditched her again, Manny decided to talk with him.

When the saber was just about to disappear in the forest with his brother again he wrapped his trunk around his belly and pulled him back.  
Diego was too surprised to protest and Agu just grinned at the sight.

"What was the point of that?!", Diego complained.

"Well, I'm not sure if I like your behaviour towards my daughter," Manny responded. "You treat her as if she doesn't exist and that doesn't really make her happy."

"Aw, come on! At first I spend too much time with her and now too few!", Diego retorted.

"I never said that you spend too much time with her, only that I don't like your stupid hunting lessons! That doesn't matter now, Peaches is in a blue funk because she thinks you are angry at her!"

Diego's expression changed from defending to contritely and he cleared his throat, looking on the ground.  
"She does? Really? Well, I... I didn't want that, I'm sorry, but... please understand, Agu is my _brother..."_

"And Peaches is your niece! Now either you will spend some time with her and make her happy or you will go out hunting with Agu and never come back!"

"Wait... are you serious?"

"Yes, I am! You're really ticking me off, you know that, Diego? At first you're depressed and angry and snap at everyone, then you're happy and cheerful and then, suddenly, you are dismissive and cold again and don't even want to talk to us anymore! Do we still mean something to you or were we just some kind of placeholder until you found another saber, in this case Agu?"

"What? No, of course not, but-"

"But what, huh?"

"You're overreacting, Manny," Diego reprimanded. "I will go to Peaches now and apologize. But afterwards I will go out hunting with my _last living relative, _if that's agreeable."

"Alright," Manny said. "It _is _agreeable. But there's something else that's bothering me."

Diego sighed. "What now?"

"You've never told us the story of your past."

"So what?"

"I've been thinking lateley. Agu told us that the others used to call you "traitor" after you had left, and I want to know why."

"You can't be serious."

"I am. Look, Diego, you have already fooled so many people in your past- your birth pack, Sid and me, and Soto, if you can include him. How do I know that you're not just fooling us right now? I want to know what you have done!"

"Or you'll kick me out? Some friend you are!", Diego snarled, not bothering to answer Manny's question and then headed in Peaches' direction with angy paces to apologize to her.

Manny sighed. "What's _wrong _with him? Why is he so moody lateley?"

Agu coughed sightly and the mammoth winced- he had completely forgotten about him.

"Manfred, would you mind if I barged in?"

"Meh, go ahead."

"Diego was just defending himself. _You _were the one who threatened to kick him out, weren't you? Look, Diego really cares about his family- especially about you, his herd- and he and I have always been very close. It's completely normal that he wants to spend some time with me now."

His words made somehow sense- Manny would never admit that, but deep inside he knew that he had gone too far in his argument with Diego and that he had overreacted. He looked at Diego, who was talking with Peaches. He looked a lot calmer now and was just putting a paw on the little mammoth's shoulder cheery.

Agu started talking again. "Look at him. He cares so much about Peaches- he would never hurt her feelings deliberately. She's his cub."

"Er- what?!"

"Well, Manfred... I think I know why Diego was so moody before we met. Sabers don't do very well on their own. Sooner or later they will get crazy without the presence of other animals of their own kind. Diego had no one to talk to-" he held up a paw when Manny opened his mouth to disagree and just continued, "he had no one to hunt with, and he had no one to... well, to do all the saber stuff, you know? It must have made him crazy.  
He's a pack animal, and pack animals need the company of their own kind. You, Manfred, have felt this before, too, right?"

Manny nodded, surprised. This Agu was wiser than he had thought. He was right: before Manny had met Ellie, he had been afraid to be the last living mammoth on earth, and that wasn't really a good feeling.

"But now you have Ellie and Peaches," Agu continued. "And the possums have each other. Sid will experience the same as you and Diego some time in the future if he doesn't find another sloth."

They both looked at the sloth. Sid was sleeping peacefully on a rock, snoring loudly and drooling a water fall.

Manny rolled his eyes. "Sid will _oversleep_ this experience, believe me."

"You know, sometimes I worry about him," Agu said, tilting his head to the side. "So much sleep can't be healthy. But back to Diego: he already _has _experienced this feeling, and it was killing him."

"And of course he was too proud to tell us," Manny growled. He hated the fact that Diego never told his herd anything- sometimes he wondered if that was because he didn't trust them or something. After a while he had just accepted it- Diego hated sympathy, and that was it.

"Right. He'd rather die than commit anything to anyone," Agu agreed. "But I think he wanted to do something about it. He wanted another saber in his herd- and when Peaches was born he took his chance. He gave her saber lessons to make a tiger out of her."

"So I was right!", Manny evoked.

Agu looked at him from the side. "You have already suspected something like that?"

"Kinda.."

"Well, you could interpret his behaviour this way. I think this isn't the only reason, though. Maybe he just wanted to have the feeling to be a parent again and wanted to prevent that the same thing that happened to his cubs also happens to Peaches."

Manny's eyes widened- he was dumbfounded. Cubs? Was Agu serious? Diego... and cubs? The mammoth opened- and closed his mouth over and over again, until he finally managed to say:

"Diego had cubs?"

Agu's mouth formed a mute O.

"I've never told you that, okay?", he said in a slightly panicked tone. "I thought you already knew... yes, Diego had cubs, but he doesn't like to talk about them. He would tear me apart if he knew that I was the one who told you that."

"I've had it with this secretiveness, Agu!", Manny ranted. "Now either you will tell me everything you know or you'll end up like Diego's last pack leader! To you information, he was stabbed with icicles!"

Agu kneaded the ground nervously with his huge paws. "Diego should be the one to tell you that- I don't know everything anyway. I wasn't there when they died."

Manny felt his throat tightening. Diego had made the same experience as him- it wasn't a pretty one. Had Diego winced every time he heard the word "family", just like Manny did? And had Manny been too self centered to notice?

He felt sympathetic for Diego, and if Diego knew, he would probably kill the mammoth without any hesitation.  
But in this case sympathy was appropriate, found Manny.  
He would never wish for his worst enemies to lose their own families, and he had a _lot _of enemies.

The two rhinos, for example, that had chased Sid shortly before the sloth and the mammoth had met.  
Or Diego's old pack- Oscar, Lenny and Zeke, if he remembered rightly.

And Ethan, that little unlikeable mammoth calf he had scolded once because he had bullied his precious little Peaches.

Suddenly Diego was right next to Manny and his voice, dripping with sarcasm, brought Manny back to the present.  
"Can I go out hunting now, _dad_?"

Manny ignored the question. "What happened to your cubs?", he blurted out.  
It was like he had flipped a switch- suddenly all the attention was on him.

Ellie stopped breakfasting, the possum brothers, who had just played tag, stood still, and Sid woke up abruptly.  
Diego's ears lay flat and he bared his teeth. Accusingly he shot his brother a glare. "Agu?"

"I'm sorry, it just slipped out..."

"Wait- you had cubs, Diego?", Ellie cut in.

The saber rolled his eyes. "Oh, great. Now everyone knows- yes, I had cubs, and no, I will _not _talk about it!"

"Alright, I've had it up to here with your behaviour, Diego!" Everyone was surprised that Ellie, the calm, gentle, patient she mammoth, had expressed those words. "We are a family, aren't we? And in a family we help each other, but only if the members go along! But you have isolated yourself in the past few months, as if you didn't want to be a part of this herd anymore! So if you don't want to belong to this family anymore, then fine, just keep it up; never tell us what's bothering you, be cold and secretive, I don't care! I won't bother to ask you how you feel anymore, if you have a problem, you will have to come to us, but we won't walk up to you!"

"Fine, that's just what I wanted!", Diego snapped, a little taken aback by Ellie's rebuke.

"That's stupid, Diego!", Eddie said. "If you don't have a blubber over the things that bother you from time to time it will eat you from the inside! Every kid knows that!"

Diego snorted. "Sure, like I want to be a little wuss, just like you two!" He pointed at the possums. "Or worse, you!" This time he had addressed the sloth.  
His voice didn't have his usual amused- sarcastic undertone; this time it just sounded hostile.

"Are you angry at uncle Diego?", Peaches cheeped shyly.

"I know _I _am," Ellie said.

"What happened to you cubs, Diego?" Sid asked wide eyed. He was just as surprised as the rest of the herd at the revelation.

"Haven't I already told you that I _won't _talk about it, sloth?", Diego snarled.

Manny felt his anger rising up- there was no need for the saber to be so aggressive.

"Now look who's _overreacting_," je scolded.

"I'm not overreacting, I'm just trying to make it clear that I will _not_, not now and not later, talk about this! Get it into your heads already!"

With that he turned to leave. Agu wanted to follow him, but his brother just snarled at him and then disappeared into the forest.

The herd gazed after him, a little taken aback at Diego's outburst.  
Usually he was so calm... the saber that had just plodded away wasn't the Diego they knew.

He stayed away from the herd the whole day, and they were starting to fear that he would never come back.  
When they were sitting around the camp fire, just like every evening, Ellie looked at Agu to see that the saber looked crestfallen.

"Agu- what's wrong?", she asked, breaking the silence.

"I feel so guilty," Agu said, conscience stricken, and looked to the ground. "If I hadn't told you the thing with his cubs this wouldn't have happened. I didn't know what I would cause with that... I'm sorry."

"Oh, Agu, honey, it's not your fault," Ellie said gently. "It's Diego's- if only he wasn't so... _proud _and _cold _all the time..."

"Well, what _did _happen to Diego's cubs now, Agu?", Sid asked curiously.

But Agu just wrinkled his brow. "Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you- Diego will tell you when he's ready."

"If he comes back at all," Manny murmured grimly.

Agu just grinned. "Manfred, he just needs some time for himself to cool down. You might not believe it, but when Diego was a cub, he could be unbelievingly defiantly, aggressive and sulky if he didn't get what he wanted. In that case, he would always yell at our mother, 'I'll go and never come back!' And then he left- every time after he had said his saying. At the most he stayed away for about one or two hours, sometimes a whole day even. His record were two days- the whole pack searched for him, and when we came back, guess who was lying there in the cave and crying his eyes out because his mommy wasn't there anymore?"

"Seriously?", Crash said tediously between two chuckles and Eddie had to stifle a laughter.

Even Manny had to grin- so Diego had been a little trouble maker? That was indeed hard to imagine.

"Oh my god, I'd _kill _to see that!", Eddie blurted out and started to laugh.

"I don't get it," Sid said. "_Who _was lying in that cave now?"

"See? You don't have to worry about Diego- you should rather worry about the sloth," Agu answered while the possums and Ellie were facepalming and while Manny was fighting the childish urge to roll his eyes.

Then the rustling grass caught his attention. He tensed, but then relief overwhelmed him when he saw that it was Diego.

"You know, this was a story they _didn't _need to know," he scolded.

"Uncle Diego!", Peaches exclaimed, ran towards him and slung her little trunk around his neck.  
He returned her gesture by putting an arm around her.

"I'm sorry," he said, addressing his herd. "Maybe I _was _overreacting..."

"It's okay," Ellie smiled leniently. "I was just so angry because you never tell us anything, you know? I want to _know _what's bothering my herd members, and I find it frustrating if I don't know."

"You don't say!" Diego chuckled. "Well, while I was in the forest I was thinking. And... and I think that I have kept this whole thing to myself for way too long now- and I owe Agu an explanation, too..."

"Does that mean...?!", Crash asked reverently.

"Yes... I'll tell you... well, you know, the stuff about my past. But only if you _swear _that I will never _ever_ have to talk about my _feelings _again!"

"Okay, okay, you won't! Now come on, tell us!", Sid sputtered excitedly.

"Oh, Diego, I'm so proud of you!", Ellie said gently. "This is a huge step for you!"

"Yep... and that's why I'm _begging _you not to say 'I'm so sorry' a single time! Agreed?"

The herd nodded impatiently.

"Now tell us already!", Agu urged.

"Alright... here it goes..."

* * *

**Hm, I've read through it a few times now and I've found a _lot _of grammar errors and misspellings. I've tried to fix all of them, but I think there are still some in the text. If you find them, either tell me or be lenient^^ Or both :)**


	8. Diego's story

**That was really motivating, thanks^^ Today I was in the mood to write something, so I thought, why not updating a little earlier this time?  
Here is Diego's long awaited past- I'm quite happy with it, but I'm receptive to criticism.  
(Sorry that this chapter is so long, I had some problems with being brief- 4981 words, whew! ) I just love sundays, I spent the whole day writing. You can't call me hobbyless- writing IS a hobby :P Sorry for all the blabbling, this happens every time when I'm busy with one single thing the whole day (sundays can be pretty boring sometimes).  
Anyway... enjoy :) I hope I could satisfy your expectations^^**

* * *

The clearing had never been so quiet and calm before.  
Everyone was sitting around the camp fire, just like that one evening when Agu had told them his story.

This time Peaches was allowed to stay, since the tale was harmless according to Diego.  
The saber was staring into the flames, struggling for words.  
The herd could see how hard that was for him, and Ellie fought the urge to stroke his back with her trunk- she knew that the saber would  
cut the story time with the words "Haven't I told you that I don't want sympathy?"

Then, finally, he started to talk.  
"Before I can tell you the story, I have to tell you something about our father, Danyo. He was a strong and powerful warrior and also the pack's beta, but at the same time awfully hot tempered. He had never wanted cubs, but then he fell in love with our mother, Taya, and if you want to be with another saber, you have to mate with him or her- that's a rule."

"That's a stupid rule!", Crash interrupted, making a face.

Diego smiled leniently. "It's not. Every saber has to live for its pack and serve its pack, and its pack only. If you belong to one, you have to support it with everything in your power, no matter how. There are several rules for that: don't only hunt for yourself, but also for your pack members. Die for your pack if its necessary. And mate with the saber you want to be with to give your pack new members. If that rule didn't exist, the pack would have already died a long time ago because there would be just too few sabers. Our father took the rules really seriously, so he had no other choice than to mate with her.

That way he could be with Taya- Agu and I were a thorn in his side, though. He hated cubs- everyone knew that.  
He already dragged us to go hunting when we were about two months old and told Agu to hunt down an adult gazelle alone once; of course he had hoped that an 'accident' would happen and that Agu would die, but thank god he had no luck.

The gazelle didn't attack Agu, it just ran away. Our mother never realized that Danyo would do anything to finally get rid of us without directly breaking the rules. On the other hand, he was gentle and caring when it came to Taya. He was _obsessed _with her, and he even blamed Agu and me for the pain she had to bear during giving birth.

Our mother was trapped in a gilded cage- whenever she was thirsty, Danyo was afraid she would die of thirst. Whenever she was hungry, he went out hunting, thinking she would starve. He loved her more than anything and would have done everything for her; still he wanted to take her cubs, namely Agu and me, away from her; I think he was jealous of us because we were the center of our mother's attention now.

He felt neglected, and he made a few more attempts to kill Agu and me to have Taya only for himself.

He never succeeded, and the older we got, the more difficult it got for him.  
When we were two years old- that phase between being a cub and an adult tiger- our pack got in trouble with another pack.  
Apparently we had stolen prey from their territory, which we hadn't!  
This feud went on for a few months until it came to an éclat; they announced they wanted to fight for the prey.

Danyo was the alpha now, and as aggressive as he was, he agreed, of course, no matter how much he endangered the pack.  
He wanted Taya to stay at home, but she snapped at him because of his overprotection.

In the end he let her come with them to the fight- but he told me to stay, I was 'grounded' for no reason.  
Actually I had thought that my father wanted especially me and Agu to join the fight so that there was a little chance for us to die.

I didn't realize his real motives till he told his allies, Zane and Manu, two huge, boofy sabers: 'If he makes trouble, you are allowed to kill him.'  
He had said this loud enough for the pack to hear it, and I knew why: Zane and Manu would kill me, no matter if I made trouble or not, and when the pack would come back and see my dead body, they wouldn't blame anyone because they would think it was my own fault.

It was his first planned and illegal attempt on my life, but who would believe me?  
Agu, on the other hand, was allowed to join the fight; two birds with one stone. Agu would die in the fight and I would die because of Zane and Manu..."

"What an _idiot!"_, Ellie interrupted and drew all the attention to herself.

"Huh?" Diego looked at her surprised.

"I'm sorry that I have to say that about your father, you two, but... he was a stupid idiot, nothing more, nothing less!", she scolded. "Tell me when there's a worse phrase than 'idiot', and that's what your father is, then!"

"There actually is a worse phrase than 'idiot'!", Eddie cut in.

"There are a lot of worse phrases!", Crash agreed.

Manny, who knew what would come now, quickly covered Peaches' ears.

"Diego, Agu, your father was an _asshole!"_, Crash ranted.

"And I already thought _Diego _was dangerous and violent," Sid said. "But I would have never thought that your father was so much worse!"

Agu remained silent during their discussion of how much they disliked his father while Diego rolled his eyes.

"Can I go on now?", he asked, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, of course, honey. Sorry," Ellie smiled and Diego cleared his throat.

"Alright. Well, I never really understood why my father wanted to see us dead so badly- I guess it was because of his jealousy. Whenever our mother told us she was proud of us his eyes seemed to darken- he didn't want to have a family, he wanted to have Taya only for himself, and he'd rather kill his own cubs than to share her attention with them. On this particular day, when he grounded me, the ball was set rolling.

I gazed after the pack, knowing that this was probably the last thing I'd ever see.  
Just as I had expected Zane and Manu jumped at me once the other sabers were out of our sight."

The possums hold their breath and Agu's eyes darkened.

"You've never told me that!", he scolded.

"It would have unnecessarily upset you. I survived, so why should I have made you worried?", Diego answered casually as if he wasn't talking about himself- as if it was someone completely different who nearly got mauled by his own pack mates.

"How did you get out of there?", Sid asked and nibbled on his claws excitedly.

"Well, it wasn't that difficult since Zane and Manu have never been really smart. And I mean it, they were dumber than Sid!"

"Hey!"

"Sorry, buddy; but its the truth. Zane knocked me off my paws and they both held me in place together- they were such cowards!

If they had decided to kill me by slicing my throat I would be dead now. But lucky for me, they wanted to see me suffer- so they put their paws on my throat to watch me suffocating slowly. They put more and more pressure on their grips, wanting my death to last as long as possible, and believe me, it didn't feel very enjoyable.

As much as I remember they have never liked me and Agu because, well, Danyo didn't like us, either.  
Zane and Manu wanted to be like him, he was some kind of a role model for them, so they imitated him in every possible way.

I think they enjoyed killing other animals; more than once they killed for sport, not for food.  
But like I already said: they were plain stupid.  
They had completely forgotten that sabers have nine lifes. After about two minutes my vision started to get blurry and soon I feel unconcious. Zane and Manu thought the job was done and just left my 'corpse' in the cave. It was the first life I've lost."

Diego made a significant pause and looked into the dismayed faces of his herd members.

"Wow... they were worse than your father!", Manny said angrily. "Killing for sport is despicable! And wanting you to suffer even though they could have ended it quickly and painless..."

"Well, but I'm glad that they decided to strangle you instead to maul you," Agu said. "Otherwise you would be dead now. Argh, I've never trusted Zane and Manu! I always knew that they were sociopaths- I'm glad that they were both killed by the saber pack that is also responsible for Kira's death!"

The herd was quiet for a few seconds then, still horrified because of the circumstances that Agu and Diego had to grow up in.  
Manny felt bad for forcing Diego to re-experience his and Agu's traumatic childhood.

"Everyone gets their just deserts," Diego said then. "Shall I go on?"

"Absolutely!", Crash exclaimed and Manny tried not to sigh annoyed at his lack of consideration; hadn't he noticed how hard this was for Diego?

"Alright... well, here comes the watershed. I sneaked out of the cave, careful not to bump into Zane and Manu, and decided to join the fight", Diego continued.

"What? Why?", Ellie asked. "You had just escaped death and still wanted to fight? You just ran from smoke to smother!"

"Well, my pack was still important to me," Diego answered. "And it was my first fight- I had been looking forward to that for a very long time- you can imagine how disappointed I was when Danyo told me to stay at home. When I finally arrived at the battle ground I felt the adrenaline flowing through my veins and threw myself into the fray. When I was just fighting with a hostile saber I felt our father darting at me.

He yelled at me- boy, was he angry. I had never seen him like this before in my life, this was definitely the worst tantrum he had ever had. Of course it was, after all he had thought Zane and Manu had already killed me.

The only thing that prevented him from slicing my throat at that moment was mother, who joined up with us at that moment.  
She managed to calm him down and said there were more important things to care about right now, after all this was war!

Then it happened: I saw a tigress, a member of the hostile pack, heading into our direction. She was about my age and had white fur with black spots on her legs and turquoise eyes... I was only a youngster and, well... she looked beautiful, and... it distracted me.

If I had concentrated more on the fight than on her the next incident wouldn't have happened.  
She lunged at me, but mother reacted faster than I did and jumped between me and her.

The tigress pinned her down to the ground and... and killed her without any hesitation... that would have been me if our mother hadn't sacrificed herself for me..."

He looked at Agu and searched for anger in his eyes, but he found no such thing- Agu just looked sad.

"I saw that," he said then.

Diego's ears perked up. "What? Really?"

"Yep. But don't worry, brother, I would never charge you with that. It was your first fight and you were always easily led when it came to a pretty female."

Crash and Eddie stifled a chuckle- the situation was too serious to laugh now.

"Let me guess how it goes on," Manny said. "Your father blamed you for her death?"

Diego nodded. "He did. We retreated and went home, the number of our pack members had decreased noticeably. The first thing Danyo did was to search for Zane and Manu, who both nearly got a heart attack when they saw me safe and sound. He said something like 'I'll take of you two idiots later', then he approached me. He led me into his cave, making sure that no one followed us, then he started to yell like he had never yelled before, and he repeated 'You have killed your mother!' over and over again. I could see how devastated he was because of Taya's death- he had lost his mind completely now.

Then he said 'You're gonna pay for this! You're gonna face the same fate as your mother! You don't deserve better!' and lunged at me.

Of course he couldn't kill me- I hadn't really broken any rules, so the death penalty would have been inappropriate and Danyo would be the villain. He just beat me up, I don't know how long, but when I woke up afterwards it was already dark and I lay in front of the sleeping caves."

"I'm so sorry," Ellie said with watery eyes.

"Ellie!", Diego scolded, reminding her of her promise not to say that even one time.

"Don't blame me, this was a record for me! I've tried to hold it back for nearly ten minutes now, I just couldn't do it anymore! Your father was so... so..."

"I know, I know," Diego said. "Please, no more interruptions, I have to concentrate! Anyway, I woke up in front of the caves and Agu was next to me, licking my wounds clean. We didn't talk to each other that night. Even though he was trying to comfort me I knew that he was also angry because of Taya's death."

"I have to admit I was. At first I thought it was your fault, too, but I got over it after a while... until you decided to-"

"Agu, I'll get to that point now, okay?" Diego was getting impatient. "Well, I knew it was pointless, but I wanted to prove to my father that my loyalitly belonged to my pack and that I would never kill my own pack member, so I decided to avenge mom's death- I went over to the territory of the other saber pack and searched for the tigress that had killed her.

After a while I spotted her, alone, sitting at a water hole.  
I took the opportunity and jumped at her, then I pinned her down to the ground.  
Much to my surprise she looked as if she had expected this, though.

She only said 'Coming to avenge mommy's death, eh? Before you kill me, let me explain something.' And then she told me that she had just done her duty, that she wouldn't have killed my mother if it wasn't in a fight and that she couldn't have regards for a saber of a hostile pack. And I realized that she was right and that I was just about to make a huge mistake- it had been a fight, and she was committed to kill every hostile saber.

I let go of her and apologized. Hey, I had joined the fight to kill, too, and if I actually had killed somebody, there would be the small possibility that it was _her_ mother.  
The further process of the story isn't logical and doesn't make sense, really, but... I was still dazed by her beauty and I...well... sorta fell in love with the murderess of my mom."

The herd gasped.

_"WHAT?!", _the possums exclaimed.

"So the murderess of your mom was the mother of your children, huh?", Manny asked, trying not to sound judgmental.

"There was nothing I could do about it!", Diego defended himself and started up to his paws. "Yes, we mated... she was not only from a hostile pack, but had also killed my mother- seeing her was the most dangerous thing I had ever done in my life! But we managed to hide our relationship. I rather wanted to break _every _stupid rule than to stop seeing her! I loved her... and now I finally understood how Danyo had felt towards Taya.

I admit, I was a bit overprotective, too, but Ona- that was her name, by the way- didn't seem to mind.  
Everything was okay- until Agu decided to follow me one day. It was the day that changed everything. Ona was in labour, and I couldn't wait for my kids to come into the world- and I swore to myself that I would never become like my father.

When Agu saw what was happening he demanded answers, but there was no time to fight in this moment; unfortunately there were some complications during the birth.

She beared three cubs- the first one had white fur and blue eyes, just like her mother, the second one had dark fur and green eyes, just like Agu, and the third one, the only male, had inherited my fur color, but also had black spots on his legs and turquoise eyes." Diego's voice started shaking, and his eyes got watery.

Manny could figure what would happen next, and he already feared it.

"I was happy like never before in my life, but... but I hadn't noticed that Ona was getting weaker and weaker.  
She had lost a lot of blood and there was no way she could make it. I licked her shoulder and tried to reassure her, assuring her that she's strong enough to make it, but of course it didn't work. I remember her smiling at me weakly before she stopped breathing."

A deathful stillness superimposed the herd. They all looked at Diego, not sure what to do.  
Nobody dared to move even one muscle an nobody wanted to be the first one to say something.

After Diego felt like he could continue without breaking into sobs he began to speak again, and is voice sounded, much to his pleasure, steady and cold again.

"I stayed with Ona for a while... Agu just seemed to be horrified because of what he had just witnessed and didn't say a single word.  
Then, after a while, he helped me cleaning my cubs. Neither of us felt like talking. I wanted to flee, to leave the pack and never come back, but I knew my kids and I would be as good as dead out there; I had no choice, I had to go back and face Danyo.

Agu helped me. He told me to stay where I was and went back to the pack alone to prepare our father for the news.  
I waited for about twenty minutes, then I took my cubs and followed Agu.

But when I arrived I realized that it wasn't as easy as I had thought- Danyo was angrier than I had expected, _way _angrier.  
Agu lay on the ground, unconscious... Danyo must have done this after he had heard about my betrayal.  
When he saw me and the cubs his rage blazed up and the real trouble began. I wouldn't even have been surprised if there was smoke coming out of both of his ears..."

Diego remembered this moment all too well- it was etched in his mind and no matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of it.

_"YOU!"  
"I can explain..."_

_The paw hit him across the face and the cub he had carried between his teeth flew out of his mouth. It was the male that Diego had secretly named 'Milo'._  
_Diego lost his balance and landed on the ground, slithering a metre or two, and when he tried to get up his legs were shaking.  
He looked at Milo- the little cub was obviously unconscious, but it was still breathing.  
The other two cubs were mewling_ _pitifully_.

_"Danyo, no!", Kira cried. It didn't need a genious to figure out that Danyo was just about to kill Diego and his cubs._

_"SHUT UP!", he yelled. "Everyone of you SHUT UP! I have to concentrate! I want to see him die! I want to see the light in his eyes going out! Did you hear that, _son? _You and your monstrosities are dead meat!"_

_Another blow knocked Diego off his paws._  
_"Do you have any pride, huh? Do you?", Danyo roared. "The murderess of your mother?! And also a member of our number one enemy- pack?"_

_"That's rich, coming from you,"_ _Diego wheezed weakly and tried to stand up again. He didn't know where he had found the courage to say that, but he wouldn't take it back. The whole pack was holding their breath at his words, but he ignored them. "You've tried to kill your own sons more than once and didn't even want to get your paws dirty! You made your two idiotic followers over there get the job done! What does that tell us about _your _pride?"_

_"Is that true, Danyo?", Shetani asked horrified._

_"You believe him? Seriously? You believe the traitor?"_

"You _are a traitor if you actually believe him, Shetani," Finan said, hatred obscuring his eyes. "It wouldn't surprise me if Diego and this tigress had planned to kill Taya together!"_

_"Why would I do that?", Diego cried, growing desperate._

_"I DON'T CARE! Your motives aren't important! You did it and that's what counts! You took everything that was important for me, and now I will do the same to you!", Danyo yelled._

_"Now, isn't that handy, huh?", Diego scoffed. He didn't know why he did that- maybe because he knew that he would die anyway, so why not mocking his father a little? "All your life you have tried to kill me secretly, and now you think you have a reason to do it openly!"_

_"I do!"_

_"Oh, really? Say, dad, don't you know your own rules? True, mating with a saber of a hostile pack is against the law, but the delinquency isn't big enough to speak the death penalty! If you kill me and three innocent cubs now _you _are the one who breaks the rules!"_

_"He's right, Danyo!", Kira said desperatly. "You can't kill a pack member because of personal motives!" _

_"Haven't I told you to shut up?!", Danyo snarled, but his voice sounded insecure - if he killed Diego now he would bring the whole pack against him.  
_

_He plodded back and forth, growling furiously. He wanted to kill Diego and the three cubs, he wanted to make his stupid son pay.  
But if he did that he might as well resign as alpha. Then he looked up into the sky and saw that dark clouds were obscuring the sun. The severe wind tousled his fur, and he knew that it wouldn't take long until a snow storm would come- and that was when he got an idea._

_"Alright. Lucky you! I will not kill you. But I won't let you get away with this. Hereby I banish you from the pack! If I will ever see you on our territory again you will die a painful death! Now take your cubs and leave!" _

_Diego's eyes widened, horrified. Banishment? No! No! This was worse than the death penalty! Now he would have to live on with the memory of his dead mate, and he had to leave his brother, his friends... well, okay... his friends were watching the scene disdainfully at the moment; even Shetani and Kira, who had defended him, looked at him like a traitor.  
_

_Then he looked down at his cubs. He had to be strong for them now.  
Casually he put the dark one, who's name would be Hope from now on, and the white one with the name Ona on his back, then his teeth enclosed around Milo's scruff._

_With his head held high he strutted past his angered pack memberes. He looked at his unconscious brother one last time before he walked out of their sight once and for all._

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

_The wind was getting more and more severe __and Diego was starting to worry. Stubbornly he struggled against it, looking over his shoulder every two minutes to make sure that his cubs were still there._

_It started to snow- tiny little flakes at first, but they were soon growing into big chunks._

_He searched for a shelter, but he could only find a tiny little den. Diego looked inside, making sure that there was no other animal in it and then gently put his cubs into the little hole._

_"Wait here," he said, realizing how weakened they looked- they needed something to eat, and they needed it now._  
_Actually they weren't old enough for solid food yet, they were still dependent on mother's milk, but it was something he couldn't afford._

Oh, Ona, _he thought, _I wish you were here now...

_But there was no time to grieve over his mate's death. Hectically he sniffed the ground, but the storm was completely confusing his scenting ability.  
It was disappointing- not a single animal of prey was putting in an appearance._

_After a while he decided to give up and followed his marks back to where he had left his cubs._

_When he arrived_ _his heart skipped a beat.  
_  
No. No. No. NO!

_The only cub he saw was Hope. Where was Milo? Where was Ona? Had they just wandered off? But they were so weak, even without the snow storm they could barely walk! There was only one explanation: a wild animal must have taken them! But why was Hope the only one left, then?_

_Diego looked around frantically. "MILO! ONA!", he yelled using the last of his strength. "MILO, ONA, WHERE ARE YOU?"_

_The last words came out as sobs._

Damn, I'm really having an off day,_ he thought. _At first I lose Ona, then I get banished from my pack and now my cubs have gone missing...

_Panting heavily with tears flowing down his face he ran back and forth, yelling and yelling and yelling until he finally realized that they were gone for good. Their paw prints weren't visible anymore... yes, probably a wild animal had taken them. How could he have been so stupid and left those three helpless cubs alone? Wait, _three_ cubs? Right- _Hope _was still here!_ _With only a little esperance he ran over to his daughter and shook her violently.  
_

_"Hope! Hope, look at me!" No reaction. "Don't do this to me!"_

_Hope still didn't move._

_Diego knew that cubs didn't have nine lifes- they were too small, too weak to escape death._  
_"Wake up, Hope! Wake up!" He shook her little body, but her eyes remained closed. "WAKE UP!"_

_Still nothing. Diego couldn't bear it anymore- this was too much. He collapsed next to his daughter and let his tears flow. "Wake up, oh god, please, wake up, Hope..."_

How ironic that Hope was the first one to die, _a voice in his head said.__  
_

_"Why are you doing this to me?!", he yelled into the sky, not sure whom he was addressing._

_He cried himself to sleep that night, knowing that the chances for him to wake up were slight. And he was fine with that. He wanted to die, he just wanted to die_...

The clearing had never been so quiet before.  
Only Ellie's sniveling could be heard.

Manny didn't know where to look at and avoided Diego's gaze. The two possums were speechless, probably for the first time in their lifes.

Sid was looking at the saber with his mouth agape.

Agu licked Diego's shoulder. "How long have you kept that to yourself?"

"Till now."

"You can't be serious."

"I wanted to suppress it, okay?" Diego's voice was shaking again.

"See, I told you this isn't healthy," Ellie scolded, with tears running down her face.  
Manny himself also had to fight his tears. He had made the same experience as Diego, so his story had affected him the most.

"Diego, don't get me wrong, but... why didn't you die in that snow storm?", Sid asked.

"Well, do you remember Soto?", Diego asked.  
Sid shuddered. "If I remember him? I still have _nightmares _about him!"

Diego cast his eyes down. "Soto and his pack had found me and took me with them because their pack needed members. He made it really clear from the beginning that this was the only reason why he saved me. I don't know what happened to Hope's corpse, and neither do I know what happened to Milo and Ona."

"Maybe they are still alive!", Sid reassured him.

"Oh, Sid, assuming that would be nothing but wishful thinking. They are dead. And I've made my peace with it. If you don't mind, I... I want to sleep now."

"Sure, honey, rest a little," Ellie said, her eyes still watery.

They all lay down, but after that story no one was able sleep. Manny looked at Diego a few times, and he could see that he had the most trouble with falling asleep.  
After a while the saber got up and walked into the forest, just like Agu did it so often.

How could he have kept such a horrible experience by himself for such a long time?

But at least he knew why Diego was always so pessimistic now. For him hope had died a long time ago. Literally and metaphorically.


End file.
